A web site dedicated to the study of The Confederation Of Health Service Employees (COHSE) and National Asylum Workers Union (NAWU), National Union of County Officers (NUCO)including the Guild of Nurses.
The site also notes the positive role COHSE, NUPE & NALGO Nurses played in the formation of UNISON Nursing Sector, the premier nursing union

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Under the Tories a newly qualified nurse will have £50,000 of debt.As they axe bursaries and introduce University fees.This while the NHS is critically short of nurses.UNISON has long argued that Project 2000 ran the risk of student nurses being treated like other students.We have always demanded minimum wage (now Living wage) for hours on the ward and "honorary contracts" with local NHS hospital Trusts.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Miss
Mary Rodwell (Brockdish, Norfolk) was a member Queen Alexandra's
Imperial Military Nursing Service (Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.). She was killed on
the night of 17th November 1915 when the Hospital Ship Anglia
was returning from Calais to Dover with 390 injured soldiers, 56 crew
members and a compliment doctors and nurses during World
War 1.

The nursing complement included Matron, Mrs. Mitchell, Nurse Walton, Nurse Meldrum, and Nurse Mary Rodwell,At
around 12:30 pm, in pitch darkness and one mile East of Folkestone
Gate, the Hospital Ship "Anglia" hit a mine laid by a German U boat,
within 15 minutes the ship had sunk. Claiming the lives of over one
hundred soldiers, crewmen and also the life of nursing sister Mary
Rodwell.

According to the Nursing Times 27th November
1915, "The horror of that first moment have been indescribable when the
doomed vessel plunged her bows into the water at an angle which
suggested her instant death, and the staff were faced with the problem
of getting nearly 200 cot cases up from wards and lower wards in almost
impossible conditions. "

The
water at once rushed into the lowest wards, and the orderlies who went
to investigate reported that it was up over their heads. From the other
wards every man who could move himself scrambled as best he could to the
deck, and some of the wounded, officers and men alike, did all in their
power to save the others, hunting out lifeboats for them and fastening
onAll
the time the nurses were working steadily, chiefly concerned with the
lifebelts, but bringing up all the wounded who could be moved along
those slanting corridors."

Some
of the men reported sister Rodwell had been injured in the initial
explosion. The Matron and sister on deck when urged to get into a boat,
which had come alongside, would not hear of it. saying "we have the
right to be last this time""I
offered to help one nurse you come with me and I'll get you to safety. i
am a very strong swimmer. You'll be safe with me. But she shook her
head an said she could not leave her men. So she was with them to the
last ".

Between
127 and 164 were killed in the sinking of the Hospital ship Anglia, The
survivors described sights which were worse than anything they had seen
at in Flanders.The Army Orders in relation to the tragic sinking of the hospital ship Anglia contained the following Statement:

"The
Army Council desire to place on record their appreciation of the
presence of mind and devotion to duty shown by the Royal Army Medical
Corps personnel on the occasion of the sinking of the hospital ship
Anglia which struck a mine on November 17th 1915.

"Through
the courage and presence of mind of the Matron Mrs Mitchell, and
devotion of the nursing sisters, most of the cot cases were evacuated,
from the ship. in this work, lieutenants P.L.T. Bennet and H.W. Hodgson
Royal Medical Corps, were conspicuous and aided by Private Darwen and
McGuire of the same corps, they succeeded in saving wounded from the
lower wards when they were awash and almost submergedMary Rodwell friends testified that "she was well aware of the risks she ran in serving the sick and wounded on a hospital ship.

The
Matron and sister rescued from Anglia say that they cannot speak too
highly of her (Nurse Mary Rodwell). The last the Matron (Mrs Mitchell)
saw of her was shortly before the explosion, when she came up to fetch
some warm woollies for her patients When war broke out she felt it her
duty to volunteer for foreign service, and was from February till may
1915 on hospital trains, and on the Anglia since May.

Mary Rodwell prophetically wrote a letter dated 8th September 1915

The
large hospital ships have gone to the Dardanelles leaving us only the
small ones for France. I saw the XXXXX she takes 3,000 patients and is
enormous. I prefer a smaller boat myself, in case anything should go
wrong. and just now the German mines are a great many over here. we have
also seen (German) submarines at times. ......"So far we have been
lucky with the hospital ships. We had a narrow escape with bombs a few
weeks ago. The explosion threw us out of our bunks .... The high
explosive bomb was only forty yards from us, and several fire bombs
only 10 yards from us burnt themselves out on the pier without doing any
damage, as they were on a stone pier, but the noise of the explosive
bombs was terrific. We just rocked and dashed, the boast listing very
much, but recovering itself without any damage done except lights and
telephone broke, but a trawler near had some men killed and injured"

Hospital
ships regularly had no escort and on one trip the ship's passengers
even included the King, who's entourage suffered from sea sickness and
who Mary Rodwell nursed.

The
wreck of the hospital ship Anglia is now an Official War Grave, which
lies on a sandy bed, where she was struck on that tragic night.A number of those killed are recorded on the war Memorial at Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton including Mary Rodwell.

Mary
Rodwell was born at Brockdish, Norfolk (near Diss) on June 7th, 1874
the daughter of Mr J. Rodwell, she later lived in the village of Oakley
on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

She
trained at Hendon Infirmary Hospital in North West London from 1901 to
1904. Later nurse Rodwell worked at Samaritan Free Hospital, Maryleboune
Road, London and later still in private nursing homes in the Capital.

When
war broke out she felt it her duty to volunteer for foreign service,
and was from February till may 1915 on hospital trains, and on the
Anglia from May 1915.It
was reported in the British Nursing Journal that she was a supporter of
their magazine (as opposed to the (Royal) College Nursing of Nursing
Journal the Nursing Times) and that she was supporter of a nursing
regulatory body which the (Royal) College of Nursing then opposed.

Mary
Rodwell would have undoubtedly therefore have supported the
development of nursing trade unionism as outlined by Maude MacCallum's Professional Union of Trained Nurses Nursing Union established in 1919.Miss
Elma Smith Matron at Hendon Infirmary stated"She herself could wish for
no better end than to die with the patients under her care".

MaryRodwell
was also recorded as being an enthusiastic suffragist being an member
"ardent" supporter of the Crystal Palace and Anerley Women's Freedom
League (WFL). She seems to have become involved in the local branch
while living with her uncle Robert Eagle in Upper Norwood, South London
(22 Palace Road).

After
her tragic death the The Crystal Palace & Anerley Women's
Freedom League stated that Mary Rodwell's "name will be held in honour
and reverence"

The
WFL was a "progressive" more working class women orientated breakaway
group from the WSPU established by Charlotte Despard, Edith How-Martyn
and Teresa Billington-Grieg on 22nd October 1907. The WFL objected to
the lack of democracy in the WSPU, it's deferance to wealthy women
rather than tackle the issues facing working women's, they also opposed
the WSPU's vandalism and particular it's arson campaigns.

The
WFL while willing to break the law in furtherance of "Votes for Women"
through direct action, Muriel Matters a WFL famously sailed over London
in a hot air balloon showering London with "Votes for women" leaflets,
The WFL was completely non-violent (over 100 of its members went to jail
for direct action demonstrations and refusing to pay taxes and )

The colours of the Women's Freedom League (WFL) were Green, Gold and White.

Mary Rodwells name appears at the church in Ditchingham, Norfolk.

On
2nd July 1920 a memorial bronze plaque was unveiled at Colindale
hospital, it was stated that the memorial would remind nurses "who come
after, of their courage self abnegation and devotion to duty when the
hour of trial came".

NOTES
BJN British Journal of Nursing 11 December 1915 (and others)Nursing Times 27 November 1915